BACK-GROUND TO OPEN LETTER
Article written by Audrey Adcock (26/07/06):
http://listserv.nodak.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0607d&L=co-cure&T=0&X=7806E11CB1825379D5&Y=URSULA%40xtra.co.nz&P=3972
Gurli Bagnall's comments posted in Co-cure
27/07/06 "The Pros and Cons...."
OPEN LETTER TO MS. AUDREY ADCOCK.
Dear Ms. Adcock,
My over-view of your piece published in Co-cure has now been posted. I
did not however, say all I wanted to say, for that may have crossed Co-cureıs
publishing guidelines. Therefore, I write this open letter and ask:
How
can anyone who claims to have a sound knowledge of ME and the politics
surrounding it, write such a glowing endorsement for the psychiatric lobby?
There are times when it is wise for a person not to identify themselves.
In
our world, there are many sufferers of ME and similar, who would be
subjected to punitive treatment. For example, state benefits that
allow
them to exist, may be removed or they might find their front doors battered
in and their sick children snatched from their beds.
The only way people in certain situations can stand up for their own and
their childrenıs legitimate rights, is by maintaining anything from a degree
of anonymity to total anonymity.
That is clearly not your situation, so when you, a complete stranger,
publish an article telling us that our collective years of nightmare
existence have taught us nothing; that we are stupid and that we MUST change
our ways of thinking and behaving, our hackles tend to rise.
All you have told us about yourself is your name and that you have a child
who suffers ME. You do not tell us what criteria was used to make that
diagnosis, so we are in no position to place any value on it, but judging
by the advice you gave, it is not unreasonable to question it. Come to
that, perhaps there is no daughter at all, and instead of being Audrey
Adcock, you might be Archie Smith.
For all your readers know, you could be a newly emerged fledgling from the
School of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy who, with the gleam of adoration
in
her eye, is waving the banner for her hero, Tony Pinching. Or you
could
have been commissioned (for a generous fee) by a member of the drug
industry, medical profession, political agency etc to put the cat
among
the pigeons. You will be aware that such activities are referred to as
conflicts of interest, but bear in mind the advice offered on this subject
in the BMJ: The only free lunch, is the cheese in the mousetrap. I guess
it
pays to watch out for those whiskers.
Please do not think for one moment, that I am accusing you of acting on
behalf of others. But it is the impression you give and given OUR
circumstances, it is not unreasonable for us to ask what qualifies you to
give advice that flies in the teeth of our experiences and then invite us
to ³think about it²! What qualifies you to patronize and demean
us? What
qualifies you to dismiss our collective knowledge, gathered through
decades
of experience and study, by ignoring it?
If you want to appear independent, then you really should not use the
strategies practiced by people like Pinching, Wessely, Sharpe et al, for
we
are far too familiar with them to be impressed.
Gurli Bagnall,
Patientsı Rights Campaigner,
Marlborough,
New Zealand
28 July, 2006